Let's start with a comparison of the ingredients: Our shaving soaps contain stearic acid, coconut oil, beef tallow, sunflower oil, castor oil, avocado oil, glycerin, essential oils or fragrance, and sodium lactate. Its a mostly easy to understand ingredient list that was formulated to create a rich, skin loving lather when combined with water.
How about a name brand foam in a can: Stearic acid, Triethanolamine, Laureth-23, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Fragrance, and additives. I don't think I can even pronounce “Triethanolamine.” According to their Material Safety Data Sheet “Inhalation of pure vapor may produce anesthetic effects and a euphoric feeling. Symptoms include headaches, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. “
I am not saying that you can't or shouldn't use the name brand foam in a can, but you're not going to have headaches, dizziness or nausea using shaving soap. You may, however, feel euphoric after a great shave!
Canned shaving foam is a bit like driving a car with an automatic transmission. You don't have to think about it, you push the pedal and the car goes. You sacrifice control for convenience.
Driving a manual transmission is definitely more effort, but you have much greater control of your car. Shaving soap requires you to work a little more too. Creating your own lather from shaving soap puts you in charge of how much soap to load, water to introduce and the ultimate quality of the lather you shave with, versus the “one size fits all” approach in canned foam.
The addition of a shaving brush is the real secret of shaving soap. Applying lather with a shaving brush allows the soap to engulf your individual hairs, saturating and softening your beard, the brush tends to raise your hair from your skin as well, all of which makes it easier for your razor to cut. The end result is a smoother shave, regardless of what kind of razor you prefer.
Speaking of brushes: Did you know we carry shaving brushes? Check them out here.
In it something is. Earlier I thought differently, thanks for an explanation.